Structural interactions in ionic liquids linked to higher-order Poisson-Boltzmann equations

We present a derivation of generalized Poisson-Boltzmann equations starting from classical theories of binary fluid mixtures, employing an approach based on the Legendre transform as recently applied to the case of local descriptions of the fluid free energy. Under specific symmetry assumptions, and in the linearized regime, the Poisson-Boltzmann equation reduces to a phenomenological equation introduced by Bazant et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 046102 (2011)], whereby the structuring near the surface is determined by bulk coefficients.